Dos Reales Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Rockford Township

12/3/23 - We were lured by our friends to go to Dos Reales again on State Street.

It was a group of 10, and based on what happened, the last time we had a group of 15 (see below), I was hesitant. Well, it was just as bad as the last time, except the lady serving us made a concerted effort to keep up with the drink refills along with the chips and salsa. I also noticed that she was being assisted by the server who botched things up the last time.

Here's where their major struggles are... it is how the cook prepares food for large groups. For example: I ordered the birria tacos and added a side of rice and beans. (Rice and beans don't come with that particular meal--- which really puzzles me, but I digress!)

There is no way I should be getting my rice and beans 7 - 10 minutes before my tacos. Not only was it brought out too early before my tacos were ready, but they gave the rice and beans to the wrong person who started eating them. Once I finally got my meal, there were missing side items that I requested. The guacamole we ordered in my opinion is starting to become very mi​nus​cule.

The steak in my wife's fajitas was absolutely GROSS! It not only had no flavor whatsoever, but it even for me as a steak lover, it was tough as leather. It was really bad.

I'll spare you the details of our friends' meal experiences. However, I will say that some of them experienced similar food and service debacles.

Then, if that wasn't bad enough... when it was an issue with our bill that we ended up just paying for so we could get out of there. Would you believe that as we're going through the process to pay, my wife is holding the credit card reader in her hand going through each prompt--- and the server from our last experience actually 'swung around to look at the screen to see which gratuity option she was going to choose.' Of course, she was immediately told to back up! Despite all that happened, we still gave them a fair tip, which many wouldn't have.

And stare in amazement, if you will... but that same server did the same peek-a-tip thing to another couple who were with us. YES, SHE DID!!!

So, I figure this is what they need to do!!!

Call Chef Gordon Ramsey and get a Kitchen Nightmare's episode going down here. He can help them fix the issues on the steak, how to properly bring out prepared meals, and the service. It is my hope that they do just that. I like the birria tacos, so I'll occasionally stop by and pick them up to go, but I can't do the dine-in thing with them and definitely with a group over 4 or 5. It would almost certainly be a catastrophe.

And before the owner types some articulated mumbo-jumbo about, I'm sorry that you had a poor experience at our establishment. SAVE IT!!! JUST CALL GORDON RAMSEY, PLEASE!

HERE WAS OUR EXPERIENCE 2 MONTHS PRIOR Our family went with friends on an early Sunday afternoon. It wasn't really busy. It was about 15 of us, and they had enough staff to at least have two servers assist us, or at the least have someone to assist our one server by taking care of just our drinks and chips and salsa.

The main server could primarily take care of our orders and maybe grab refills for us in between.

That would have been reasonable, but no. The waitress tried to handle our group mainly by herself, which was a travesty. I don't know if she was trying to get the tips for herself or what.

There was a long and constant wait to get drink and chips and salsa refills. The salsa mini bowl ran out quickly because it was so small. It was very frustrating.

Then, when it came to getting our food orders, I'll spare everyone the details but I'll say this... it was even worse, cold food, extremely late food, and missing food. The check situation was just as bad.

The fresh made guacamole was the highlight. The food that was warm was decent. We may give them another try.

Maybe this was just a bad day, but I don't think we'll be bringing a group...

Original review was five stars. We love this restaurant. Quick, authentic, reasonably priced. UPDATED ONE YEAR AFTER ORIGINAL REVIEW. 6/2/23

Adiós para siempre, Dos Reales. My husband and I usually come to this restaurant every few weeks. Up until yesterday, we always enjoyed it. It's obvious that they premake all the proteins and reheat them for each meal. However, that means you get your meal quickly and the ingredients always seemed fresh enough. It was a decent meal at a fair price.

Last night was very bad. We went in before 5, for an early dinner, and there were maybe ten other tables seated in the place. The kitchen was definitely not slammed. The hostess and waitress were both very sweet and promptly seated us and got our drinks. We knew what we wanted and ordered right away.

Per the norm, food came out in less than five minutes. My husband's very basic burrito was fine. My Quesadilla Rellena was terrible. The tortilla was dry and crusty and the chicken filling was cold. The bed of lettuce and accompanying sour cream and guac were thin and anemic. The guac had been sitting out - it wasn't even green anymore. I flagged down the waitress and told her the chicken was cold. I wasn't impressed with anything on the plate - but kept my other complaints to myself. When she brought it back several minutes later, the entire plate had been microwaved with everything on it. I had steaming hot lettuce, hot sour cream, hot brown guac and a now soggy tortilla with warm chicken. It was disgusting. Thankfully, I had ordered a side of beans and rice and decided that was enough food for me. I sent the plate back with the waitress. She was extremely apologetic.

A few minutes later an older gentleman came out and apologized. He said we wouldn't be charged for my entree. Trust me, I wouldn't have paid for that entree anyway. After eating my side of rice and beans the check arrived. True to his word, the Quesadilla was not on the bill. However, everything else was. I'm not out to get a free meal but, having been in the hospitality industry myself, expected to at least get my rice and beans comped, lol. It was like .25 worth of food that I ate. We paid the bill, fairly tipped the server, and won't be back.

Looking at our receipt, I see we were charged for the chips that were brought to the table, that we did not order or eat (thick and stale) and the rice and beans were nearly $5. I waited a day to write this review to see if I was still ticked off - I am. So here we are. I am in the top 10% of restaurant reviewers on Google - according to Google - so I don't make a bad...

I enjoy good food and eat out regularly. Dont mind spending money on good food. Tried this place today, worst food ever. Service, horrible. When we got our food, literally had to get up to get our silverware. Nothing is authentic. Guac, well atleast they used real avacados. Bland. Chips are store bought. Salsa out of a jar. Beans are canned beans. My wife is from Mexico, so she knows authentic. Ordered three sope dinner, ate half of one and couldn't eat anymore. Meat tasted funny. Ordered ribeye with shrimp, steak medium, steak was white in appearance, seared on one side and not at all on the other side. On top of all that, all the staff was pointing at us and made it obvious they were talking about is. At one point, the chef came out pointing right at me making comments. On top of serving horrible food, they made us feel uncomfortable, like we did something wrong. Never in my life experienced something like this. After we paid the bill, on the way out, finally the owner asked if everything was ok. Its obvious he's in it only for the money, not serve good food. And just a some advice in general when you go eat ethnic food, if it's a Mexican restaurant and no Mexicans eating there, run. You go eat Chinese food and no Chinese people eating there, run. Etc...never been so disappointed and...